A few weeks ago Nike released a commercial focusing on NBA stuperstar Lebron James’ controversial decision to leave his home-state Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat. Lebron James is arguably the biggest basketball star in the world right now and he has own line of shoes and also clothing made by Nike. After making the decision to leave Cleveland Lebron James was ridiculed by many different people, from other players in the league to almost every fan that did not support the Miami Heat. It takes a big start for fans to get together and burn his jersey to show how unhappy they were with his choice.
With being such a disliked public figure I was curious to see if Nike would ignore the elephant in the room and release the next Lebron James commercial focusing on the product but they chose to address the situation directly and hit back against the most public and outspoken figures that criticized James, those being Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan. With almost no reference or product placement in most of the commercial, it can be seen as a public relations advertisement, something a politician would have rather than an athlete promoting a product.
In this commercial, I think Nike is using psycographic marketing as Lebron James repeatedly asks, “Should I….” Most people like to have the option of choosing what they want to do with their lives and with this commercial Nike is clearly giving Lebron James the stage to let everyone know he should be allowed to make his own decisions and that he should not be created into something he is not by media and other public figures.
With the commercial being released before the start of the season I do not think it was the best time to do so because if Nike had waited until the season had begun many fans would watch Lebron James do what he is best at and everyone appreciates amazing athletes and seem to forget what they may have done. But by releasing this commercial some may view it as Lebron James having no regrets about leaving his poor home-town team along with the fans in the dumps and moving onto the sandy beaches of South Beach.